Where you live inevitably affects your life experience: our mental maps of reality depend on our space, and what one sees as possible or allowed depends on that space as well, especially in the formative years of our lives. In her memoir in essays, Koets details her life growing up in a heavily religious, and not-so-heavily populated, town in the southern U.S., and how intense fear, loss and love hurt her, pushing her to realize that “naming our desire allows us to feel the heart beating in our chest.” I’d argue this story is essential for everyone, but especially those living and growing in North Carolina — a state with deeply southern roots and tendencies — as our community at NC State is.